My daddy's gotta buy me a new rig...

[mr. x]

So anyway my dad promised me that he'd buy a new computer rig for my birthday (June 29, my LAST bday), anyway i havent called him up on it yet so here goes

anyway what i want exactly is a rig that can play say, Halflife 2 smoothly, so where would u guys suggest i look at stuff (websites for comparison etc)

should i go with alienware or what?

assume that i am a moron who knows very little about computers and just plays games cuz i am.

[Emperor_Mike]

If money is no issue, go to Voodoo computers, have one built and ship it down to the US. If money is an issue, buy the parts separately and assemble it yourself. It's cheaper than purchasing the system as a pre-built unit and you get the added satisfaction of knowing what goes into the box if you do it yourself.

[ism]

Since you're unfamiliar with assembling a computer I suggest you let someone else install the motherboard, CPU, and RAM into the case. These are the riskiest installations where when something goes wrong it would totally confuse a n00b and possibly destroy the device.

It would save you money and give you higher quality to assemble as much as possible yourself. With those three done for you, that would leave hard drive(s), cd/cd-rw/dvd/dvd-r drive(s), floppy (optional now), video card, sound card (if you're not a pro just go with onboard sound), network (get it onboard too, it's faster), which are relatively easy to install. You can get mobo+CPRU+RAM+case as a BTO (build to order) and have it burned in for a nominal fee from a place like http://www.accessmicro.com if you know what hardware you want to base it on. Or you could find your local geek kid who would be willing to assemble it for you for $20.

As for choosing what hardware to get, there's:
http://www.anandtech.com/
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/ especially their high-end gaming rig ($2500) guide at http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MHGSBG/article.php/2240721 and compromise with their value rig ($1000) to find the price you want. Getting a slightly weaker CPU can chop off $300-500 (because of mobo) just like that.

Tom's Hardware used to be good but has been biased lately so I can no longer recommend it. That's my personal opinion so take it as such.

[himura-dono]

*cough* www.overclockers.com *cough*

btw, access micro seems pretty legit, their rating is pretty high, although they only have 33 reviews http://resellerratings.com/seller2087.html . ism is right about trying to do most of it yourself because you save unbelievable amounts of $.

avoid thg like it has aids and a torn condom.

[mr. x]

so whats the deal with this AMD 64 bit thing?

and how does it affect gaming?

[537]

Right now I don't think there are any gaming applications that can fully utilize 64-bit architecture. Maybe when Doom 3 comes out, and like an ATI Radeon 29700000 All In Wonder.

[mr. x]

gosh, putting this shit together feels too much like homework